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Classical Insults
- Ancient Greeks
We
are all clever enough at envying a famous man while he is yet alive and at praising
him when he is dead.
Mimnermus, c. 630BC
When
a man dies, all his glory among men dies also.
Stesichorus, 630-580BC
One
that bath wine as a chain about his wits, such a one lives no life at all.
Alcaeus, c 580BC
He
who mistrusts most should be trusted least.
Theognis, c 490BC
For
whomsoever I do good, they harm me most.
Sappho of Lesbos, c. 610BC
Put
not thy faith in any Greek.
Euripides, 484-406BC, Iphigenia in Tauris
Too
lightly opened are a woman's ears.
Aeschylus, 525-456BC, Ajax
Lodgings
- free from bugs and fleas if possible, if you know of any such.
Aristophanes, 446-380BC, Frogs
He
collected audiences around him, and flourished and exhibited and harangued.
Ibid.
I
have hardly ever known a mathematician who was capable of reasoning.
Plato, 427-347BC, The Republic
No
human thing is of serious importance.
Ibid.
Of
all animals, the boy is the most unmanageable.
Ibid.
Mothers
are fonder of their children than fathers, for they have a more painful share
in their production, and they are more certain that they art their own.
Aristotle, 384-322BC, Nicomachean Ethics
One
more such victory and we are lost.
Pyrrhus, on beating the Romans at the Battle of Asculum
The
ape, the vilest of beasts - how like to us.
Quintus Ennius
I
only wish I may see your head stroked down with a slipper.
Terence, 185-I 59BC, Eunuchus
Demosthenes:
The Athenians will kill you, Phocion, if they go crazy. Phocion: But they will
kill you if they come to their senses.
Phocion, c. 402-317BC
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